Many Lives, Many Masters

A girl in my line of work can't get 5 feet without reading this international bestseller. Brian Weiss, author of Many Lives, Many Masters is a practicing psychiatrist and graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School. I am grateful for his impressive resume, not because I need to be impressed, but because many people dismiss ideas such as reincarnation or hypnotherapy as something only "new agey" hippies would be interested in. The more geniuses that get on board, the more that the doors will open for exploration.

Dr. Weiss' book follows his accidental discovery of past life regression therapy. While treating a client using hypnosis, Dr. Weiss was able to uncover trauma from past lives that still haunts his patient today. Recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks dissipate as the client releases the emotional wounds from the past. As the reader, we go along this journey of profound treatment as well as discovery for both Dr. Weiss and his patient.

One angle many people can appreciate is Dr. Weiss' skepticism. He did not begin hypnosis with this woman with the intent to uncover past lives; in fact, Dr. Weiss didn't even believe that was possible at the time. It was simply not on his radar.

My one major philosophical disagreement with Dr. Weiss would be the idea that there is some kind of class system. In the book, the woman who undergoes hypnotherapy seems to be in a lower, serving type role for many of her lifetimes. This has not been my experience at all. First of all, our class in life is merely an element of our existence that will teach us lessons. Being rich has its own lessons, and being poor has its own lessons. None of our souls are inherently more or less deserving of earthly wealth. Sometimes, in order to put karma in balance, a wealthy Paris Hilton-type may come back on the lower end of the financial scale in order to learn lessons that wouldn't be possible as an uber-rich heiress. But none of us are stuck in these roles. My guess is that the soul of the woman is choosing these serving-type lifetimes to teach her lessons she needs to know.

Nonetheless, this is the best hypnotherapy/past lives 101 book that I can recommend.